Prenatal human skin morphogenesis is regulated by crosstalk between immune and non-immune cells
The prenatal human skin is populated by innate immune cells, including macrophages, very early during skin development. However, the role of macrophages if any during early skin morphogenesis is uncertain. We assembled a single cell multi-omic and spatial transcriptomics reference atlas of prenatal human skin from 7-16 post-conception weeks which unravelled microenvironmental cellular organisation and cross-talk between non-immune and immune cells that underpinned hair-follicle formation and skin vascular network formation. We benchmarked a human ES/iPS-derived skin organoid model against prenatal and adult skin that demonstrated close recapitulation of the epithelial and mesenchymal components during hair follicle development. However, the skin organoid was absent in immune cells and had markedly diminished endothelial cell heterogeneity and frequency. We predicted key requirements for macrophages and macrophage-derived growth factors in driving vascular network formation in human prenatal skin and functionally validated the enhancement in vascular network development following transfer of autologous iPS-derived macrophages into an endothelial cell angiogenesis assay and skin organoid cultures.
- Contact
- Muzlifah Haniffa
- Release
- 8 August 2022
- Lab
- Haniffa Lab
- Tissue
- Adult skin, Prenatal abdominal skin, Prenatal facial skin, Prenatal limb, Prenatal lower limb, Prenatal skin, Skin organoid
- Assay
- 10x 3' v2, 10x 5', 10x Visium
- Disease
- None
- Organism
- Homo sapiens
scRNA-seq Datasets
Skin organoid
Prenatal skin
10x 3' v2
Integrated scRNA-seq and Visium Datasets
10x Visium
10x 3' v2
10x Visium
10x 3' v2
10x Visium
10x 3' v2
10x Visium
10x 3' v2
10x Visium
10x 3' v2
10x Visium
10x 3' v2
10x Visium
10x 3' v2
10x Visium
10x 3' v2
10x Visium
10x 3' v2
10x Visium
10x 3' v2
10x Visium
10x 3' v2
10x Visium
10x 3' v2
Imaging data











Visium - All samples
Reproducibility
Reproducibility is a major principle underpinning the scientific method. We make publicly available the raw data and analysis scripts associated with each collection.
- Code Repository
- https://github.com/haniffalab/FCA_fetal_skin